[Lancaster, Pa.] Armstrong World Industries (AWI) is wholly committed to flooring and ceilings on an international scale now that it has sold off its distribution and cabinetry units last month, according to Frank Ready, CEO, Armstrong Floor Products, who oversees the organization’s flooring business in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Armstrong sold Patriot Flooring Supply to Mansfield, Mass.-based Belknap-White Group for an undisclosed sum on Sept. 17. Just 10 days later, it sold its cabinet business to private equity firm American Industrial Partners (AIP) for $27 million. Both entities were part of Armstrong’s $1.15 billion acquisition of Triangle Pacific in 1998.

“Both of these moves say we’re going back to our core business, which is the manufacture and marketing of floors and ceilings,” said Ready. “We’re the No. 1 player in those markets. We have a scale advantage. When you think about attractiveness of investment, you put money into those businesses.”

Armstrong never wanted to be in the distribution business, said Ready. But maintaining Patriot Flooring Supply was “the absolute right thing to do” when New Jersey-based Hoboken Floors suddenly exited the market with a 2007 bankruptcy. Likewise, though Armstrong’s cabinet business annually generated roughly $140 million in sales, it was unprofitable and accounted for only 5 percent of business.
“With the collapse of the single-family market, the cabinet business has lost money, that’s public record,” said Ready. “We were stuck with a business not generating profit. When I look at the profitability of that business, it was ‘break even’ at best.”

Armstrong’s 2010 investment of $26 million to convert its sheet vinyl plant, based here, to a fiberglass format, is paying off nicely, according to Ready, who said Armstrong is also building two additional flooring facilities and a ceiling plant in China. New ceiling plants were also recently constructed in West Virginia and Russia, according to Ready.

“Our investments are going into those core businesses,” he said. “That’s where we want out investment dollars to be. The investment in fiberglass at Lancaster has turned out to be great. It’s been very good for us. It’s an example of the advantages we have in our core business.”